• BeMoreCareful@lemmy.world
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    2 months ago

    Is there really any way to get us making things again?

    Part of me feels like that would be better for workers, but I’m kind of a dumbass

    • Wanderer@lemm.ee
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      2 months ago

      Do you want things to be cheaper or wages to be higher (especially wages for those in low wage jobs).

      There were ideals about competitive advantage. But the whole economy has been undercut by lower wages elsewhere that things got cheaper but not because of increases in productivity in the economy so wages went down.

      There are a lot of pressure to deflate wages with free trade and immigration. But things that increase wages like market forces and limited labour aren’t really a factor anymore.

      Making things again would be taxes on imports, free education, tax breaks for RandD and investment. Also subsidies and blocks on exporting IP and knowledge.

      • MisterScruffy
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        2 months ago

        So trumps tariff plan could get us making things in America again or no? It seems like workers had a lot more power and therefore higher wages before america de-industrialized and that was a better thing for the average person but I don’t know I wasn’t around then

        • Wanderer@lemm.ee
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          2 months ago

          I’m not American so I don’t really know what’s going on. It seems that people, especially on this website, can’t see anything Trump says or does as a positive because he isn’t on their team. But he certainly has said and done things that are right or a positive at least for some people. Can’t just disagree with someone for the sole reason you don’t like him.

          But economics is complicated. For example trade barriers make things more expensive and could increase jobs or decrease them. Or more accurately increase in some areas and decrease in others. No one knows what’s going to happen for sure, even looking back people disagree on what has happened.

          But I personally think there has been too much emphasis on GDP growth around the western world and lower business costs rather than increasing discretionary income and jobs for lowest earners. So policies that are weighted for that rather than businesses I see as net gain at the moment.

          • MisterScruffy
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            2 months ago

            Trump is an evil bigot but yeah even a broken clock is right twice a day. I can’t stand people who dismiss or demonize an argument for the sole reason that it has been voiced by trump.